The Fix Is Not In

It’s a measure of the minimal importance that President Obama assigns to enforcing the country’s immigration laws that he waited until this week to deliver his first speech on immigration. When he did, the president merely confirmed what is already common knowledge: the system is broken and there is nothing that his administration will do to fix it.

In equal parts high-minded and disingenuous, the speech at American University was typical of the president’s oratory. Setting himself above the political fray, Obama condemned “special interests” and partisan gridlock for holding immigration reform hostage. But he failed to note that Democrats currently rule both houses of Congress, and that the entire immigration reform effort, with its implicit amnesty for the 11 million illegal immigrants residing in this country, is itself a sop to a large special interest: the growing population of Hispanics that Democrats hope to turn into loyal voters. It was no coincidence that just prior to his speech Obama met with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Typical, too, was the president’s reliance on straw men to stifle debate – in this instance, the prospect of mass deportations of illegal immigrants. This in fact is a policy that no serious immigration restrictionists advocate, and its invocation is a convenient way to foreclose serious discussion about enforcement policies that really could reduce the burden of illegal immigration. Similarly, there was the president’s now-routine posturing as a lone pragmatist seeking common-sense solutions. But that Solomonic stance is gravely undermined by the fact that this White House, like its predecessors, has opposed the pragmatic measures – especially credible enforcement and robust border security – that could provide a measure of relief from the problems of mass illegal immigration.

If the president’s speech recycled the more tired tropes of the immigration debate, the real news was that there was no news in the speech. For all the feigned urgency of his remarks, there was no evidence that the president was actually proposing to do anything to deal with the immigration issue. He outlined no specific policies, nor did he propose any specific piece of legislation.

Why then raise the issue at all? Election-year politics would seem to be the chief explanation. The speech seemed intended as a boost to troubled Democratic incumbents, particularly embattled Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Facing a tough rival in Tea Party-backed Republican candidate Sharron Angle, Reid has been actively courting his state’s Hispanics, who comprise 15 percent of the Nevada electorate. By floating the prospect of immigration reform and eventual amnesty, Reid hopes to rally support even in the absence of an actual bill. If that stratagem fails, it won’t be for lack of backing from the White House. No sooner did Obama deliver his speech than he invited Reid for a private and symbolic meeting.

Jacob Laksin is a senior writer for Front Page Magazine. He is co-author, with David Horowitz, of The New Leviathan (Crown Forum, 2012), and One-Party Classroom (Crown Forum, 2009). Email him at jlaksin@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter at @jlaksin.

As to Arizona: One wonders if Obama will push for a name change on the battleship that lies at the bottom of Pearl Harbor.

Gamaliel Isaac

Illegal immigrants are Obama's best chance of getting reelected, of course he's not going to do anything to stop it. After Jan Brewer complained to him about the crime and violence of illegal immigrants Obama put signs around Arizona telling Americans that it is dangerous and to stay away (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzDlN7VLmXQ). Then he has the nerve in his speech to say the border is safer than it's ever been.

Steve Chavez

Anyone agreeing with ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION agrees with MODERN DAY SLAVERY!

Africans were brought here to "do the work Americans wouldn't do."

Yes, today's Mexicans, and others, are WILLINGLY coming here but once here, they live in squalid conditions with many people living in an apartment, if their lucky. They also work harder and faster, and in most cases, for lower wages. They also don't have a recourse for unsafe working conditions or favoritism by their bosses who will just say, "You don't like it! Go back to Mexico!"

In a local documentary on migrant workers, a woman said that they were lucky if the boss got them a tent to live in but most of the time "we slept under trees." They also took showers with a water hose attached with a wire to the side of a shack.

The most vocal people against TODAY'S ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, are the people who were given amnesty by Ronald Reagan twenty years ago. They feel their jobs are in jeopardy from men who will dig a fifty foot ditch in two days while it takes them two weeks. Who is the boss going to benefit most from and who will he let go?

Yes, this is MODERN DAY SLAVERY! Will it take a hundred years to realize it?

Anything like blanket amnesty will cost this country more than immense amounts of money…Many people were sounding the alarm on illegal immigration twenty years ago. The government has been passive….and the results are going to be catastrophic. Every day AMerican citizens are killed by illegals, driving drunk or committing crminal acts….the costs for medical care, welfare, incarceration of hundreds of thousands of illegals….it's staggering…..but the DC beltway hasn't a clue about what's going on or what to do…..Arizona came up with a plan inspired by, yes, Federal law….Our nation is in deep trouble…and amnesty is NOT the answer. "Comprehensive immigration reform"…what does that mean? No one seems able to define it. How about this: DEPORTATION? Everyone can define that.

Jim C.

Deportation, at roughly $15,000 per person, would have its cost, too. Do the math re: the estimated number of illegals. So much for deportation.

Bottom line: There will be illegals here as long as we keep giving them jobs.

Kathleen

When Obama admitted his administration could not secure the border he simultaneously admitted he can not perform the job he was elected to perform. This admission is grounds for impeachment.

Jim C.

Well, then, go get 'im, tiger!

LOL

Steve Chavez

When the Health Care mandatory insurance becomes law and we Americans will have to pay or else 16,000 IRS agents will come after us, ILLEGALS WILL BE EXEMPT AND THEY WILL CONTINUE TO GET FREE HEALTH CARE which is the reason Health Care costs are going up! We will again have to pay for their "freedom!"

ILLEGALS are given drivers licences here in New Mexico granted by Bill Richardson, a half-Mexican. We have to prove we have insurance but when I got a speeding ticket and went to the court to fight it, MANY ILLEGALS THERE DIDN'T HAVE INSURANCE OR REGISTRATION! They were given a $60 fine which is cheaper than having insurance right? So what's the incentive to have insurance when the Judge let's them off?

TRY BEING ILLEGAL IN MEXICO. I had a front headlight out in Juarez and I hit it and it turned by on but he still took my license and my license plate. When I crossed back, OUR AGENTS had me pull over and they tore my van apart while MEXICANS were crossing by the hundreds!

USMCSniper

Since I cannot comment on Kagan in the article, all I can say is we son will have a activist witch, a latino liar, and a leftist lesbian as the women on the Supreme Court. Definitely, the bottom of the barrel.

Mike

What should unite Americans more than any other thing is agreement to live in a society that adheres to the rule of law. When those in power refuse to enforce laws, and furthermore use the law for selective exercises of power to stifle political and social opposition to lawlessness, what we end up with is not far removed from absolute corruption. These naked abuses of trust, and continual changing of rules are effectively breaking down the American social fabric. This attack appears to be well calculated,

Dreeber

Africans were brought here to "do the work Americans wouldn't do."

Not quite. When Europeans found themselves in possession of tropical plantations in the West Indies and the Americas, they realised they had no idea how to go about working the land. They were experienced in farming in temperate zones but knew nothing about tropical agriculture. So they went to Africa to hire indentured labour.

Guess what? The Africans had no notion of indentured labour, let alone the means to provide it — but what they did have was plenty of slaves. The Europeans simply took what was available.

Jim C.

You see? The reasons for slavery weren't really that inhumane; I mean, the slaves came ready-made, didn't they?

And the holocaust wasn't really as bad as the Jews make it out, either, right?

Rob

It doesn't seem that Americans are worried about immigrants who come here to work and contribute. When Reagan let them in the "drug wars" were not a major problem on the border. But that was yesterday. Now the term "illegal immigrant" has been undermined by danger to American society itself.

As the economy gets worse, both here and in Latin America and Mexico, we will either have to legalize drugs or turn the U.S. border into a war zone – another front. Can we ever seal the borders? Is it even possible? Drugs are too small to keep out, there will always be a way to sneak them in if people here want them. It's time to face the music.

Our media is probably the worst culprit, allowing the AMA and drug industry, to push drugs non-stop on TV. "Ask your doctor" is the most heard term on television. The drug industry and their enslaved MDs who depend on them create some new "syndrome" weekly. What used to be called common "absent-mindedness" is now ADD: "ask your doctor."

http://intensedebate.com/people/catzmeow catzmeow

This is clear dereliction of duty. Forget impeachment, arrest and put on trial the poser and his administration for treason.

Thunder

11 million illegals??? NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Much more-
35 to 50 Million – and I can hear 'Buma saying: "We have to give amnesty to all of them, not to a part of them only".
Illigal entry, false documents – and AMNESTY, then citizenship?
We must be the country of idiots!!! Suicidal idiots!!!!

Yesterday, I spent the morning at Jefferson's Monticello for a Naturalization Ceremony that's been held annually since 1963. Over 70 new citizens were sworn in, and ready to take their place among the rest of US citizens. I asked a volunteer how the people were selected for the Monticello ceremony. She said they try to get a cross section of countries from where folk hail. Afghanistan, Canada, Jamaica, Pakistan, China, India, and many others were represented. One that was notably missing, one that's in the news daily regarding immigration. Mexico. It made me wonder if perhaps that hard work, following rules, and behaving like a guest in a host country was but ONE method of attaining a position within the US. Sneaking, whining, rioting, complaining, and shouting can be another method. Maybe I was at the last naturalization ceremony at Monticello. What will they need them for at the end of the Obama dynasty?

American_Flag

How is that for a kick in the teeth?….that freekin' slime ball oBAMmy….